Wednesday, 13 September 2017

Normal partners in government, the hard-right DUP , are also well-represented on high-profile committees despite only having 10 MPs.Its members will sit on the transport, international trade, Northern Ireland and defence committees among others.What are Henry VIII powers?Since Theresa May launched her Brexit Repeal Bill, there's been furious debate about 'Henry VIII powers'.So what are they?It's all to do with the difference between what us geeks call primary and secondary legislation.Primary laws are Acts of Parliament and go through a long, line-by-line process of approval by MPs and the House of Lords.But with secondary laws it's 'take it or leave it'. There's no chance to edit them, and in some cases (when they go through 'the negative procedure') they actually become law before MPs get to challenge them. The last time one of these was blocked was 1979.These big differences mean primary laws are much more powerful. Quite rightly, some secondary laws can be crushed by the courts - primary laws can't.Yet a Henry VIII power lets the PM make a secondary law that edits a primary law.The process gets its name from the six-wived Tudor King who 'ruled by proclamation' thanks to the 1539 Statute of Proclamations.The government claims it needs the power, which ends on 29 March 2021, to correct 'deficiencies' in EU-inspired law after Brexit.It can't be used to change taxes or criminal offences, make laws retrospectively or change the Human Rights Act.But even Tory MPs and a House of Lords committee have voiced fears about the powers. Labour's Keir Starmer said: "So much for taking back control."

Monday, 28 August 2017

The DUP—racist, homophobic, anti-abortion bigots with a history of violence
by Simon Basketter
Former DUP leader Peter Robinson with a gun
Former DUP leader Peter Robinson with a gun

The Tories may hang onto office with the support of the bigots of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland.

But who are the DUP?

Arch reactionary Ian Paisley set up the DUP in 1971 because the Official Ulster Unionist Party didn’t hate Catholics enough for him. It now has ten of Northern Ireland’s 18 MPs.

The Tories made a great deal of noise about Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed links to terrorists during the election campaign. Now they want to go into coalition with people with a rotten history of backing terrorism.

The terrorist group Ulster Resistance was founded by a collection of people who went on to be prominent DUP politicians.

Former First Minister Peter Robinson, who was DUP leader and Northern Ireland’s first minister until last year, was an active member of Ulster Resistance.

Paisley long toyed with Loyalist death squads to protect the “Union” with Britain.

In 1981 Paisley launched “Third Force”. He led a group of 500 men up a hillside in County Antrim at night, where they were photographed holding firearms certificates above their heads. They were showing that they could easily have been holding weapons.

Racist

When Enoch Powell was expelled from the Tory party for being too racist even for them, he moved to Northern Ireland.

There, his campaign manager was Jeffrey Donaldson. Donaldson said, “I worked alongside two of the greatest names in Unionism in the 20th century.

Ian Paisley: bigot
Northern Ireland election won't solve the deep crisis in the system
McGuinness went from rebel to minister
The left should take no lectures on Northern Ireland from the Tories
Protests defy the Tories and the bigoted DUP
Division and rule in Ireland—how Unionism bolstered empire

Sunday, 6 August 2017

the current CONservativeREGIME IN THE UKHASHALTED RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS OF NATIONAL INTEREST UNDER THE 30 YEAR RULETYhe undemnocratic nature of theMay misgovernment does not end thereall casbinet members are personally investedinthe private companies to whom they are procurring£billions worth ofoutsourced public service contracts with inbuilt profits costing the taxpayernot only in the cash cost of those contracts but also in erms of the lowering of quality of public services such as health transport,prisons,educationand probation services among others.There is a demoratic and constitutional cost to the electorate in that too many policies not inth government manifesto which are being rushed throughparliament in indecent hastegerrymandering boundary changes are being instituted to build in an automaticTory Majorityany potential legislation, for the benefit of the majority, whgich the goverment doesn't likeis simplytalked out by the likes of Jacob Rees Mogg and Phili Davies MP WHO TREAT THE CHAMBER AS A PUBLIC SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDin which to play silly but dangerous games in blocking legislation to ensure landlords, likeRees Mogg and the whole cabinet, everyone a landlord will now nothave to shell out cash to ensure all property to let is fit for human habitation a number of health and safety roposals have been blocked in a similar way it could be argued lives have been lost as a resultTHE UK IS SLEEPWALKING TOUNDEMOCRATIC OBLIVION

Saturday, 15 July 2017

Scared about your human rights after Brexit? You should be: There was a time, not so long ago, that David Davis was a great fan of the EU charter of fundamental rights. He liked it so much that he used it to take up a legal challenge against the snooper’s charter (brainchild of the-then home secretary Theresa May), which ended up in Luxembourg.